September in a nutshell!

It seems I keep dropping the ball on my monthly sum ups, here we are already more than half way into the month of October before you get an update from me 😦

But you know what they say, better late than never… right? So here goes!

Activities and exerciseHaving been ill for a long time, and me now being on a 100% sick leave from my company, I ran into a major bump late august (company related), that unfortunately have taken a toll on my health.

So my happy average of 6 times a week (that I had during summer) took a crashing nosedive during the month of September, to where I think I just about squeaked by to an average of about 1,5 a week 😦

DeclutterMy decluttering is slowly… sloooooowly picking up again, not quite as much as I hoped, but still, there are a few things that have gone out the door.

I cleaned up some of my medication, and said goodbye to my old vacuum machine. In addition there are a couple of other things that went out the door, that I completely forgot to take take pictures of or even write about. Not really anything big, just some junk, a flowerpot or two, some pieces of clothing ++

Together with the medication and vacuum cleaner, it racked up to about 23 items out-the-door.

Not a lot, but hey.. I’m on my way again 😉

Only buying necessities

I think I’ll change this up a little. Earlier I used to list all my allowance categories, regardless if I bought anything or not. The next months I’m changing that to just mention the categories I’ve spend money in.

Eating out – As most of you know, we seem to struggle with this category month in and month out, so I’m sure it will come as a big surprise (it sure surprised me) that we did “fairly” well during the month of September. we “only” ate out 5 times 🙂 Big shocker, I know!

Now if we can only keep this up for October, we might still have a shot at the overall yearly goal (when it comes to money spent, not the amount of times eaten out.. because that one, we have already failed miserably at).

Buying non essentials – as most years, Christmas sure came early this year too! I think it’s crazy how the businesses start Christmas three months before the real thing. I mean, no wonder people are sick of christmas by the time Christmas actually rolls by.

IKEA tends to be one of the first ones out, and they started to roll out their wrapping papers, ribbons and tree decorations late September. All their good stuff seems to disappear in no time, so if you actually want some, you have to hustle. So guess what 😉

Yep, I got some. I got wrapping paper, ribbons, and a couple of really cool tags (picture below). This time around I went for paper that wasn’t all that typical christmassy. Which means I can use most of it, all year round, for anything that needs to be wrapped. How very “frugal” of me 😉

Financial goals
Interest rates are going down like crazy, which is wonderful for my mortgage, but suck even worse for any money I have in the bank.

I’m thinking, that it’s probably time to “do something”, as the money I have in the bank, won’t be generating much interest after they reduce the rate again, December 1’st.

I haven’t decided yet, between making another extra down payment (like I did in March), or maybe stocks or mutual funds. Hmm, maybe a little of both is the smart way to go. I’ll let you know, when I figure it out 😉

ProjectsWell… projects, just like activity, kinda went out the window, except as always I did get to enjoy my garden a little.

Oh yeah, and my stepmom got a small Cinderella Classic Incineration toilet for her allotment cabin. If I ever make or buy an tiny house, this is the system for me, as they have an RV version that doesn’t take a lot of space. Now to the exciting part! Guess who had to install it? Yep, you’ve guessed it 😉

B and me spent a few hours one afternoon. It involved a hole in the roof, some pipes and a few new composite shingles, and then we were done.

There are still a few of bits and bobs left to do at my friends house (the one that recently moved), but we had to put some of that on hold in September. But hey, there are still a few days left of October, so we might have a shot at getting it done this month 😉

Well, I guess that’s it, not much else to tell ya. Better get this out, while there is still a few days left of this month, because before you know it, it will be time for the October update… which, by the way, I promise to be a bit more timely with 🙂

Thank you! Yes, I’m not giving up anytime soon. I still have stuff to get out-the-door, now I realise that the decluttering is slowing up a little due to the fact I have gotten rid of a LOT of stuff the last 5 years, and the amount of stuff to get rid of gets smaller and smaller and harder and harder to find… but.. I’ll find it, it just takes me a little longer to “part” with some of it.. 🙂

Thank you, I’m sure I’ll bounce back real soon 😉 I like the notion of a tiny house, but since Norway have so many rules you need to follow when building a “property”, I’m not so sure how it would work out over here. I’m pretty happy with my 818 square feet home, so it’s not like I’ll be downsizing anytime soon.. but maybe one day 😉

I wish there would be more Tiny House stuff on TV over here in Norway. It’s not really anything that is “well known” here. Then again, Norwegians are pretty used to “tiny” houses/condos anyways as it’s quite normal that the sizes of homes are waaaaay smaller than what you are used to in the US. It’s probably as much as 85 % of our homes that are in the size bracket of 220 – 1900 square feet.

I’m glad the decluttering project has started up again. I hope Christmas doesn’t set your progress back too much. Christmas for us always seems to end up with us having significantly less space for some reason.

I’m sure Christmas won’t add to much stuff, as my family and friends know I’m working on getting rid of stuff, and only want stuff I can use up 😉 Also most of my family have pretty much stopped with the gifts for us “grown up kids”, so I don’t get that many gifts anyways 😉

I’m so sorry to hear you had a set back with your health. Never feel bad about taking the time you need. We just won’t even count September at all! 😀 I do hope you bounce back to normal yourself soon. I LOVE the Christmas stuff!

I did all my decluttering before I moved across the country this summer. But alas, there are important papers accumulating in the bedroom that I have had not time to file. And some items that have not been out away since they moved to this new house. There is always much to do but first, I need to paint! Oh well, hope you feel better soon and get back on your routine.

Moving house is always a great opportunity to get rid of stuff we don’t use. But it’s funny how things manage to “build up” anyways, when we are not looking, especially paper sneaks back into the house really quick 😉 I’m planning on scanning the important ones so that I might finally get down to a manageable amount. I’m sure you have everything under control (unlike me), after your move.